S. Korea permits investors visit N. Korea

The government will selectively allow South Korean business professionals to visit North Korea for checks on their past investments there, an official said Wednesday, amid a prolonged suspension of trade with the communist state following its deadly attack on a Southern naval ship last year. For business purposes, these individuals will also be allowed to meet their North Korean counterparts in a third nation outside the Korean Peninsula, the Unification Ministry official said, on the condition of anonymity. The ministry handles inter-Korean relations, which have seriously frayed following the torpedoing of the warship Cheonan in March last year.